Internationalism

How diverse and multicultural is your country? Shouldn't education aim to form Global Citizens?
How much of it is based on Cultural Competence and Tolerance?
Can I type ablog post solely on questions? How Web 1.0 is that?
The only different, is that I'm typing it from an iPod Touch using free wifi.

Blogging in a busy 21st Century World

I love blogging, although my concept of it has changed over time. I've always been a fan of writing properly. My humble experience tells me that if the text is not interesting enough in the first 3 lines, then your post will most likely be browsed...so my 4th line will mention the new assignment I gave to my 9th grade students. It is about Geologic Eras, Origin of Species and Evolution.
How impressive it is to analyze time from the geologic point of view, it just makes us remember that our lifetime is nothing more than a tiny speck in a huge field.
I'm also a fan of scientific literature, so I've given them the good news, they'll read 4 books with me this year: The Microbe Hunters (Paul De Kruif), The Naked Ape (Desmond Morris), The Selfish Gene (Richard Dawkins), and I'm still debating for a 4th one, suggestions are appreciated.
In the meantime, I'll leave you with the video: "Eleanor Morgan says we evolved from Aquatic Apes"

People and Devices: Online 24/7

Every single day, 350+ million users access Facebook, a slightly less number of users communicate by 140-character messages via Twitter, and others exchange info, feelings and messages via hi5, MySpace, MSN Messenger, etc.

It is easy to understand the explosion in Social Media in the last few years, Communication is innate and inherent to humans, and language is its highest expression, and humans have perfected it.

I started on Twitter last year, and ever since I’ve tweeted over a thousand times, and for sure I’ve read over 100,000 tweets already. Growing in Social Media is as exponential as bacterial growth, unstoppable.

Demographics depend on the type of Social Media you are inquiring about, but in general terms most internet users have experienced it in one way or another.

However, one thing is certain, kids love social media, and they are the fastest growing demographic group showing presence in these websites. So, how does that translate into something to be used in education?

Well, it is necessary to be able to get into Social Media as well, as teachers and administrators, we must be facilitators (unintended rhyme) and not scared away from it, and less of all…forbid it.

Digital Natives are anew generation, and as much as we want to categorize them as ADD or ADHD kids, they are multitaskers. I’m sure there will be a significant change in appreciation in the still valid idea that women are true and efficient multi-taskers, and men aren’t. In the near future, kids and teens will have to be occupying that perception.

How’s the behavior of our kids’ and teens’ right now? We can certainly verify it by watching this video and identifying our son, daughter, niece or nephew:

M(2) Video

The report published by the Kaiser Family Foundation, indicates numbers that are completely true. Usage of media has increased to 10 hours and 29 minutes in 2009, discounting the multi-tasking time (29%) we reach to 7 hours and 38 minutes a day.

So, kids are “working” a whole shift in total media (Tv, internet, music, games, etc.) Wouldn’t it be productive for teachers to insert knowledge acquisition and learning enhancement activities in such shift?

What does that indicate? We have to adapt! Adaptation is a human characteristic, and one that we need to use a lot in this case.

How will be the Web of Tomorrow? Simple answers: more portable, smaller, easier to use, ubiquitous, and easier to integrate to any of our daily devices and appliances.

I always go back to Sir Ken Robinson and his TED conference when dealing with questions about Education, and this time is not the exception. Creativity in Education is something we must constantly go back to as a reference point, but also as a stimulus for learners and teachers.

eReading, WiFi Pedestrian

I’ve been downloading several iTunes files to learn about Psychology (Yale 1, 2), or American History, or even learn how to make iPhone Apps. This is a trend that has been followed by many universities already.

It is undeniable that our life has been molded towards mobile gadgetry. My 6 yo son complains when I change his movie trailers from the iPod, and sometimes enjoys listening to Paul Bloom lecturing about Psychology.

So, that makes me think that in the 5 years we could be seeing at highly innovative new products, but I’m sure we’ll updated versions of the current, still “new” products.

The iPhone will probably be updated to its 4G version on the Apple event on January 27th, and the iTablet launched, as well as presenting the iLife 2010. The excitement that Apple creates in the tech biz is incredible, every other year all of us are waiting to see the novelties from Steve Jobs’ company.

 

The eBook readers is another of those devices that are hot these days. However, a close look to the Kindle brought some points to consider, for example, when is the color Kindle coming out? A report last year indicated that by August 2009 the 3rd version could have it, but it is the end of January 2010 and is not here yet.

What will come next then? Will we track our children’s location with subdermal GPS devices? Will the refrigerator in your kitchen remind you of today’s To-Do list while it sends the shopping list to the local market?

What comes next? What is in the future of mobile and technology devices for our kids?

Global Warming…or, Global Raining?

I’ve been hearing about the issues of Global Warming for years. Causes and consequences have shifted in some way over the years. Many are the reasons for that, certainly the world’s needs are sometimes a drive force to modify some of these issues. Carbon dioxide, greenhouse effect, oil, methane, and other terms have been in our mouths for years. Nothing has been significantly done government-wide in the US, more than separate actions that have have little or no effect nationwide, not a good move considering that the US populations represents 4% of the world population but contributes with 25% of the World Carbon dioxide emissions.

I’m talking about this because I woke up at 5 am with water dripping from the roof of my apartment due to “intense” rain for Lima, PERU. Since I came back to my home country, I have witnessed more rain in the last 3 years than during my first 25 years here.

Click here for the news report.

I call it “intense” because 3-4 cm in the city of Lima is a significant problem, the city is not prepared for rain. In fact, floods all over the city were registered yesterday, disrupting transportation and bringing down mud and houses.

How can an old bureaucratic city with a corrupt government prepare for mother nature’s fluctuating weather conditions? That is something that must be answered not only in my country but everywhere. The difference with northern or european countries is that they have had more extreme weather regularly and they are prepared, but we’re not.

If problems come from extreme weather and unpredictability, what’s better than mother nature to help us solve those problems. I review TED talks constantly, and these two lectures might be of interest for this topic:

www.asknature.org

2010…Resolute

2010 is a year of hopes, more than the current one. I don’t remember most of my expectations this same day a year before, I’m sure they were important but I just can’t remember them. The only one I remember is that I wanted to go back to university, as a student.

On March, I started a BEd and an MEd, both programs separately in the same university, URP in Lima, Peru. I had started the same MEd a in 2008, but for personal reasons it remained inconclusive. I had had a taste of it and I wanted it back. I did my best even though I thought it wasn’t going to be possible to carry on both programs, 50+ hours of work a week, a wife and two kids.

I guess I was lucky and fortunate at the same time. My family has been a tremendous incentive in my new educational stage. My two kids know when I’ll get home late, and they come to the lab and visit me during their recess time, I work at the school where they study. that gave me a different connection, something that didn’t happen before. We talk about the university classes, and I included them in one of my last presentations when i prepared a video of a moment of creativity.

One of them is more into the plastic arts, the other is more into high tech. He downloads games, and chats since he was 5. He handles electronic devices by intuition and my wife requires his assistance to change the ring tone of her cell phone. Does that sound familiar? Digital Native vs Digital immigrant?

We were planning to go camping for 4 days to celebrate the new year, but my friend (the organizer) had to be taken to the ER due to intense chest pain. He was diagnosed with Angina Pectoris, a sign that you might get a heart attack (Click here to see an animation). I saw him yesterday after staying overnight in the ER. He has to take it slow, and so do I. Apart from the fact that the camping with the kids had to be rearranged, it made me think very seriously about myself.

I’ll turn 35 by the end of February, I’ve had that number in my mind for quite some time. That is the mark where I was supposed to start living a serious and organized healthy lifestyle. I guess I’ll have to stick to that deadline, because I don’t want the dead line.

For the rest, I’m very compromised to finish university and pursue a new turn in my career, and the events for the coming year will tell in what direction that turn will be.

Happy New 2010!

Scientific Week

I read yesterday about crashes in the Moon causing water from the Moon rise to the surface. This along is a great discovery, water has always been the main search engine of life in places other than Earth. Who knows what else is on or under the Moon’s surface. Let’s not forget that the Moon was part of our planet sometime around the first forms of life appeared. There’s always room for speculation.

 

However, I just read something else that sounded very interesting too. Is Teleportation possible? it appears to be, although only for one atom. Nothing shy of impressive and amazing, certainly. I’m not a big fan of tv shows such as Star Trek or others that considered teleportation as a futuristic possibility. However, this report has been a great start, and the computer industry might grab the idea and its potential before the travel industry, that’s for sure.